Reports from the research team

The ESTHER hosting laboratory is at last ready! Only some minor works remain to be done, such as the painting of the technical floor panels, as well as the testing of the electrical and ventilation equipments,

Please join us in a little walktrough on the building interior, before it is filled with the corresponding scientific equipment!

The NASA spacecraft Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is fast approaching Planet Mars. If everything goes according to plan, the spacecraft will successfully enter Mars atmosphere and deploy the nearly 1Tonne rover Curiosity in the surface of the Gale Crater.

With a 4.5m diameter and a nearly 4Tonne Weight, Mars Science Laboratory is the largest spacecraft ever to enter Mars atmosphere, at an initial speed of 5.8km/s.

As with the past NASA PHOENIX mission, the ESA Mars EXPRESS spacecraft, currently orbiting planet Mars, will track the MSL spacecraft entry. However, unlike PHOENIX, Mars EXPRESS will be too far apart from the MSL entry point to properly track any optical entry signal. It will nevertheless track the radio signal of MSL up to the landing phase.

The ESTHER team expresses its best wishes of success to this unprecedented mission. In the upcoming decades, Planet Mars will be an important target for international scientific exploration, and the ESTHER Shock-Tube is expected to provide added insight on the physical-chemical processes in Martian-type CO2-N2 shocked flows.

The work on the small experimental combustion chamber, for the development of the future ESTHER ignition system, has been completed by Setofresa.

The bombe has been manufactured in a low-carbon stainless steel with a very good tolerance to corrosion, and namely low propensity to hydrogen damage, either hydrogen embrittlement or steel de-carburization. Such properties are critical for our applications, since an average of 2-4 daily firings of He/H2/O2 mixtures will be carried out int he future combustion chamber of the ESTHER shock-tube.

The selected steel also has very high yield strengths (Rmax>700MPa and R0.2%>500MPa) making it tolerant to shocks (which might result from accidental detonations in the combustion chamber), but also more difficult to machine (requiring an increased number of passes when compared to more standard steels).

Despite these technical difficulties, a very nice combustion chamber has been manufactured, and the inspection report confirmed the overall quality of the performed work.

Now we only have to wait for the hosting building to achieve operational status (namely after the installation of an overhead crane in the experimental hall), and another big step of the project will begin, with the first onsite ignition tests!

Moving forward to the conclusion of the hosting building, work is now being carried out on the interconnection to the general infrastructure of the Loures IST Campus. The Experimental Hall and the other support rooms are being finished up and painted, and the rooftop covers are also being applied.

View of the building front, showing the works for the connection to the campus sewage system

The hosting building construction is quickly approaching conclusion, as we move towards the detail construction of the building details (gas, water, electricity and communication lines, flooring, and internal walls).

Lets start by examining the general external layout of the building, with the placement of the insulating materials over the concrete walls:

Building front side

Building Left side (1/2)

Building Left side (2/2)

Building Ceiling

A photograph oof the interior of the compressor and gas bottles storage rooms is presented below:

The ceremony for the opening of the Loures Campus of IST has taken place today in the ITN campus, with the presence of the President of IST, Prof. Arlindo Oliveira, the President of the Science and Technology Foundation, Prof. Miguel Seabra, the Dean of the Technical University of Lisbon, Prof. António Cruz Serra, the Mayor of Loures, Eng. Carlos Teixeira, and the Secretary of State for Science, Prof.ª Leonor Parreira.

General view of the opening ceremony

What better occasion for making a short jump to the construction site and witness the latest developments?

General view of the building front

View of the building gas storage room

View of the future experimental hall with the shock-tube slab cradle

Detail of one of the anti-seismic pads holding the 40 Tonne slab in place

The construction of the hosting building reaches his second month milestone. The reinforced building walls are in the final stage of construction, and the anti-seismic pads of the shock-tube slab are currently being deployed.

The manufacturing of the test “Bombe”, which will be used for the research and development on the setup for high-pressure ignition of He/H2/O2 mixtures, is currently underway. The “Bombe” main shape has been finalized, and the process has moved to the final phase of detail manufacturing.